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Box #13
Box Location:
SW corner 21 & P Sts.

View Box Location
on Map

Before the city built a bridge over Rock Creek at P St., this area was a favorite fording place. In fact, it was here that the Baltimore Light Dragoons and French units led by Lafayette, Count Rochambeau and Duc De Lauzan crossed Rock Creek during the American Revolution. A low-level covered bridge crossed the creek from 1855 until 1871, when Georgetown and Washington jointly constructed a $43,000 metal truss bridge. A horse-drawn trolley of the Metropolitan Railroad Company ran west from Dupont Circle across the P St. Bridge into Georgetown. The present double arched masonry bridge was built in 1935 and renovated in 2004.

The elegant Dumbarton or “Buffalo Bridge” that carries Q St. over Rock Creek was built in 1914-15 to the designs of Glenn and Bedford Brown. The bridge is embellished with a series of masonry heads modeled on Sioux chief Kicking Bear as well as two large bronze buffalos (left) by sculptor Alexander Phimister Proctor (1860-1950).

This call box is sponsored by:
Ruth and Sam Alward, Marston and Edith Chase, John and Marilou Hyson, Larry Muenz and Judy Meritz, R. Bradley Runyan and Steven Nelson, Tom M. Schaumberg, Beth Louise Webb, Steve and Linda Weitz

“I don’t usually have people in my paintings, but it is hard to ignore the fact that anytime I walk my dog around the fountain, it is surrounded by people. I chose to paint the section of the statue that depicts a man setting sail as it reminds me of my father.”

 

More info: pitaviat@radix.net

Fire Fact | April 1, 1940

Box 345 sounded for fire at 2131 O St NW. The four-alarm fire at an old stable converted to apartments killed three.

FIRE ALARM BOXES such as this one (originally painted red) were installed in the District after the Civil War. Telegraphs transmitted the box number (on round topper sign shown above) to a fire alarm center. This system was used until the 1970s when the boxes were converted to a telephone system. By the 1990s, the callbox system had been replaced by the 911 system and was abandoned.
Battalion Chief in a typical
engine from the era

Fire Department information and images courtesy of Capitol Fire Museum
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Art on Call is a program of Cultural Tourism DC with support from DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development District Department of Transportation.

This community project is also supported by Dupont Circle Citizens Association and The Dupont Circle Conservancy, Inc. and generous donations from community residents and businesses.

©2005 Dupont Circle Call Box Project No reproduction or distribution of any site content without consent of author.Links to this or any other page on the site are permitted. No hyperlinks to pictures are permitted, query info@dupontcirclecallbox.com for copying permission.